


Renewal

by OpheliaAlexiou



Series: Novara Galactica [2]
Category: Novara Galactica, Original Work, Science Fiction - Fandom
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Character(s), Alien Culture, Alien Flora & Fauna, Alien Gender/Sexuality, Alien Planet, Alien Sex, Alien Technology, Alien protagonist, Alien/Human Relationships, Anal Sex, Casual Sex, Erotica, Hermaphrodite Protagonist, Multi, Oral Sex, Other, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Procreative Sex, Rough Oral Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-04 17:27:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16351004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OpheliaAlexiou/pseuds/OpheliaAlexiou
Summary: This is the story of Minsara Lusu Neha Ramir, last survivor of the ancient species known as the mirleiani, and the resurrection and renewal of her species. The setting of this story is my Novara Galactica universe, a futuristic sci-fi universe; this story takes place a few centuries after the exodus from Earth.





	Renewal

**Author's Note:**

> Certain characters in this story's earliest chapters are the creations, used with permission, of a friend of mine not currently on AO3. Their presence is mostly very temporary.

“All right, Captain, we're just about ready; we simply need to go over the checklist,” said the physician, a mirleian male by the name of Maru Lheno Hira Shalar. He was a man faintly superior in physical height, roughly an inch and a half taller than her own 90.5 inches of height. As with all mirleiani, he had a complexion of medium teal blue with lips that were of an inherent medium turquoise pigment, with clean-cropped silver hair as opposed to her own white mane. Similarly, she would have estimated him as perhaps a pound or two heavier than her, though for their height difference it made him look a tiny bit less toned than her own military musculature.  
“All right, I'm ready,” she nodded.  
“Good. Have you eaten?”  
“Yes.”  
“Hydrated?”  
“Yes.”  
“Relieved?”  
“Yes.”  
“Bathed?”  
“Yes.”  
“Released?”  
“Not yet. My subordinate who typically handles that part of my health maintenance routine is already in a module,” Minsara answered.  
“Do you have anyone else who may be available to attend to your needs before you enter stasis?”  
“No; I am an unattached soldier,” she answered.  
“Small mercy, that, since unless we discover a solution in the immediate future everyone you know will be around a hundred generations removed from the living when you're reawakened. Would you like me to take care of your attendance before stasis?”  
“I … would like that, doctor, if it is no imposition to you,” Minsara answered, seated nude on the cot in a medical room beside the cavernous stasis chamber she was about to be inducted into. The war with the serafaeans was going poorly, they had used a new weapon whose contagion she was not yet infected with, and she'd been selected to ensure that mirleian military personnel survived this incident. There were scientists, educators, artists, philosophers, the heart and soul of what it was to be mirleian was in the adjoining chamber's massive cavern.  
“It is no imposition; we are far from our world. Would you prefer oral or anal service before your rest?”  
“Would you be willing to provide both, doctor? It has been a long time since I've felt a man on my shaft.”  
“Absolutely,” Maru answered, setting down his checklist and slipping off the plain black lab-coat he was wearing, draping it over the edge of a counter in the examination room. Kneeling in front of her, the handsome young physician soon leaned in and extended his tongue, beginning to lick up the length of her impressive thirteen-inch shaft. On the larger side of average for the third anatomical sex of the mirleian species, her length was three and a quarter inches in diameter as well as the mildly remarkable length.  
“Do you want me to use my hands, as well?” he asked, looking up her body and past full, pert breasts to make eye contact with her apple-green irises.  
“Just your mouth, doctor,” she replied firmly, and he nodded.  
“Speak freely, you don't have to call me doctor right now,” he replied, keeping his hands on her thighs.  
“Understood. Get back to your work, then,” she commanded firmly, and felt his tongue immediately getting back to work licking her shaft, felt his soft blue lips kissing her length. Leaned back and propped up by her palms on the cot, she let herself focus on the pleasant sight of a man on his knees in front of her. Tapping his chest with one foot, the doctor's hands immediately moved from her thighs to his plain white shirt and quickly unbuttoned, shedding his shirt and revealing further expanses of his mirleian blue complexion.  
Soon, his lips wrapped around the plush head of her phallic muscle and she felt them sliding down it, his tongue on the underside of her shaft and soon his throat wrapping around a large portion of it. She always preferred this over the other, but it'd been too long since she'd felt a man on her shaft and she knew that realistically, she needed it. Maru's lips on her rod felt fantastic, as did the beautiful view before her, a handsome man on his knees, sucking her cock, head bobbing smoothly, button-up work pants beginning to show his enjoyment of what he was doing for her. As she tapped his hips with her foot he immediately unbuttoned and shimmied down his pants from hips to knees, keeping his mouth on her cock, moaning gently as he sucked her cock harder even as his own thick blue prick was revealed.  
Rock-hard if on the small side of average, his was about three inches shorter than hers and three-quarters of an inch thinner, besides. Sliding his pants underneath his knees and then shins as he continued to suck, he pushed his pants off so he now knelt nude before her, hands returning to her thighs as he made no effort to pleasure himself. His throat bulged and his muscles flexed against her rod as his lips raced across the surface of her flesh, a swift silken caress to her meat. She wished she knew him well enough to know if she'd like him overall, well enough to insist on an extra module for him, but there was every possibility he was married, to a man or to another woman like herself, or at least dating, if in an open relationship.  
“Mm, good boy. You like sucking on your knees, don't you?” she teased, feeling an affirmative moan on her length, as she scooted her hips forward then dropped down onto her feet and took his head in her hands. He lifted his head from her length and blue eyes made contact with hers.  
“Do it. Take it, hard as you like, Miss,” he insisted with confidence. She nodded and smiled at him, then shoved his head back down on her prick and began to thrust, getting herself into a solid rhythm as she fucked his mouth. She was by no means surprised by his expression of a submissive nature, in the twenty-two years of her life she'd fucked more than her fair share, perhaps, of submissive little bitches since coming of age. Grasping his head firmly in both hands, her hips started the smooth, steady rhythm of hammering in as hard and fast as she could, taking his mouth for herself at full force as he scooted his hips back to put himself in a more hands-and-knees position. His throat became increasingly easy to ram in the changing position, and with that her thrusts became more and more powerful, faster and faster.  
For nearly an hour she rammed her length down his throat, before finally her shaft started to pulse, and thick white jism surged down his throat. Fingers coiled in silver strands as she moved around behind him, and rammed herself to the hilt in his ass, soliciting a loud, somewhat feminine moan and a strong arch of his back. Moaning as she rode his ass, the doctor was swaying his hips against her, and her hands slid down to his hips. Her hips pressed firmly against his ass as each thrust slowed to the inevitable halt, before she rolled her hips backward to thrust anew.  
“You're a fantastic slut,” she praised, hands grasping his hips tightly, seeing his back arch in front of her, and liking the sound of his moans which told her he was definitely enjoying this experience. Her hands moved a bit as her cock started to pulse, anew, after nearly forty minutes of hammering her hips against his, before she pulled back slowly and steadily, her shaft emerging for the last time from his ass as she left him full of her seed. In better years, he might have given her a batch of hatchlings in a few thousand hours, but as it stood at the moment, he had fully satisfied her needs, and now there was just the simple matter of a quick wash of her length. Even as she pulled out, he quickly slipped away from her and then returned to a kneeling position, beginning to dutifully wash himself off of her rod until she was properly cleansed. Rising and getting dressed promptly once more, he led the nude woman into the cavernous chamber where two others were waiting.  
The fact it had taken decidedly longer than expected to bring her from the examination room out into the chamber, remained unmentioned as she stepped into the module, then sat down, and finally lay down on her back.  
“All right, captain. Good luck, and with any luck you'll awaken to a world that's safe to reoccupy and to repopulate our species on,” the doctor said, before the partial-opacity screen was lowered down over her body, encapsulating her within the module and activating the stasis protocols. She closed her eyes and faded from consciousness, for a period of time which was far beyond what anyone had envisioned or intended.

———————————————————————————————————————————————

“Doctor Lu,” said the leporivan navigator and team geologist, Kai Laren, “we're picking up something unexpected … there's a power source somewhere in the asteroid field, near the star, near 155.7 million kilometres from the stellar mass. These readings are unlike anything I've ever observed; the power fluctuations are faint, but they're definite – and there's also a life sign coming from one of the asteroids. We won't be able to tell which one until we get closer to the field, though.”  
“... a life sign? One single life sign on an asteroid this far out? Adjust our heading to start zeroing in on the life sign and power fluctuations. If they are in distress, I would prefer to arrive sooner rather than too late,” the faleen captain replied, archaeologist Doctor Vai Lu. The two were deeply different: the commanding officer of the small science vessel was a feline with a stature of seventy-five inches and two hundred forty pounds, compared to the lapine geologist's sixty-six inches and a weight of one hundred twenty-seven pounds. Both kept their fur shimmering clean, but the markings were likewise dramatic in their differences: the archaeologist's fur had a wide white section in the torso and hips, with dark orange marked by black stripes. The geologist, on the other hand, had a mottled coat of brown, white, and grey, the first of those in an exceptionally dark hue whose mottled pattern included covering most of the massive ears and over his eyes while the rest of his facial and cranial fur was white.  
As the ship swept smoothly into the asteroid belt, they were soon able to weave their way through the field of large and small stellar debris until it came into view. A monumental asteroid, oblong and roughly eleven hundred kilometres in diameter and fourteen hundred kilometres long, full of crags, craters, and chasms. Nearly seventeen hours of searching later, they found the chasm that had something in it that caught them all unawares: a massive two-kilometre landing pad recessed into the bottom of a deep chasm. The recessed landing zone, itself, was a hundred meters deep with walls of metal that were gleaming and polished smooth, with dim blue lights flickering into life when they approached, and then landed, passing into an area that had a sustained atmosphere.  
“Captain, there's an oxygenated atmosphere around us, now,” anthropologist Aaron Dilaive informed immediately, as the ship sat down on the unfamiliar metal plane, “oxygen level 17.8% outside, no trace of harmful atmospheric elements for faleen, human, or leporivan respiratory functions.” Aaron Dilaive was a man of roughly seventy inches and one hundred eighty pounds, and was the one most familiar with the ship's engines, despite not being an engineer by academic education. Standard Commonwealth education made every spacefarer capable of basic computer operation and engine maintenance, as a basic matter of course.  
“Doctor Lu, the power fluctuations are getting worse, this facility is in danger of an immediate shutdown protocol; it seems likely that this would terminate the life-sign inside,” the leporivan geologist reported urgently.  
“Can we redirect our power to support the system in any meaningful way?”  
“Diverting power to facility systems now,” answered the ship's fourth crewman, a human mineralogist by the name of Xavier Kefala. Xavier was a man of seventy-two inches and two hundred pounds, well-toned and black-haired with green eyes to the blue-eyed yellow-haired appearance of the other human. Even as he spoke, power fluctuated on the ship for just a moment, and then the fluctuations in the facility ceased and stabilised.  
“Facility stable; no telling for how long, but the facility is stable for now, at least,” the mineralogist reported.  
“All right, excellent. Let's see about getting inside and setting up some of our portable generators to make certain it will hold up while we explore the facility and locate the life sign to verify identity and wellness. Hopefully this will be little more than a wellness check on someone who has a legitimate reason to be here and is in fair health, but we shouldn't assume anything. This facility is definitely not of Commonwealth manufacture.”  
For three days, they searched the facility methodically in search of the mysterious life sign to no avail, though they were no longer in an urgent search mode as the life sign had stabilised with the power readings. On the fourth morning there they discovered a pair of massive doors and, opening these and passing through them, entered into a monumental hall which was filled with capsules on the floor. An enormous computer console to their right and lights and pods of uncertain number stretched beyond the horizon of their vision to the left. The pods themselves were enormous in number but also remarkable in terms of their actual size, being roughly nine feet in length and three feet across.  
“The life sign is in this room. They must be in one of the pods in this room,” Kai concluded, then looked around on the console before beginning translation and systems checks, “According to this, this is called a stasis hall. There are …”  
“Doctor Laren?”  
“Sorry, Doctor Lu. This chamber contains four million stasis pods, one of which is still active. According to what I can determine from this system, it was corrupted by some kind of major electromagnetic shock that hit it but didn't knock it out completely. It corrupted some of the algorithms, caused a steady deterioration in the power core which caused the power fluctuations we picked up. Let's see where is it … here we are: data file, Solar Revolution 98799 – a previously unpredicted supernova event damaged the power centre.”  
“98799? Wait, they were in stasis for 98,799 years before a nearby star's explosion damaged the power core?” came the query from Aaron, “How long have they been in stasis?”  
“One stasis module remains active. The last data file in the system appears to be recent, not more than two months, marked … Solar Revolution 2304117 – each solar revolution is according to sensors timed at approximately 8,900 hours.”  
“... you're telling me the person in the stasis pod has been in stasis for 2.3 million years?” asked Doctor Lu, with an incredulous tone, “we know of no species that has been around for that long – the person in the stasis pod must be ancient.”  
“Doctor, that's … not the only unusual characteristic of the survivor,” called Xavier from a mild distance from them near one of the side walls of the chamber, standing over an illuminated module, “subject has feminine anatomical traits. The subject in the module, however, has external anatomical characteristics similar to those found in the tellurian female.” Even as he spoke, Aaron joined him, brushing a hand across the partially opaque blue window over the subject, brushing away the presence of dust and fog, to reveal more.  
“Subject is of exceptional physical stature, besides,” Aaron added to his fellow human's observation, “How do we disengage the stasis protocols without hurting her?”  
“Searching modules; pod identified: module 3977927. Deactivating stasis protocols; reinitialising patient biological functions,” Vai said in response, as he and Kai worked at the console to bring the survivor out of their now-precarious stasis. The pod's top panel split lengthwise down the middle and lifted an inch from the rest of the pod at the same time, releasing a thick, milky blue vapour that looked like it was bubbling in the crease in the middle while it poured out like water from the sides. Spreading harmlessly down onto and across the floor before eventually dissipating away and revealing the woman in the pod, whose breathing had resumed.  
“The patient is two hundred thirty centimetres in height, one hundred twenty-three and a half kilogrammes in total weight, blood type is … like nothing we have on record,” said Aaron Dilaive as he scanned her form, “hair is white, skin is a distinctively vivid blue colour. I feel safe in surmising the patient's pigmentation is normal for her species, along with her anatomical sex. Scan indicates omnivorous dentition, very similar to most primates. Patient appears to be starting to regain consciousness, now.”

———————————————————————————————————————————————

Irises the shade of a green apple fluttered open as if coming awake from a long sleep, though it felt like it had been only a few minutes since she had been slamming her hips against another mirleian's. She found herself looking up at a group of unfamiliar faces of more than one unfamiliar species – three, to be precise, by the look of it. She released a soft groan, as she moved for the first time in millions of years and her muscles protested mildly, still reawakening from the unexpectedly long-lasting period of hyper-sleep.  
“You are … what are … who are you?”  
“Doctor Vai Lu, a faleen, from the Commonwealth science vessel Celesti Amaru. These three are the doctors of my science team – Doctor Kai Laren, a leporivan, and Doctors Aaron Dilaive and Xavier Kefala; their species is called human,” the faleen said with some tenderness to his tone.  
“I am Captain Minsara Lusu Neha Ramir of the Mirleian Marine Corps,” she introduced herself, “I surmise, based on your expressions, that you have never heard of the mirleiani. Have you heard of the taleialani?”  
“No, we have not heard of your species, nor of the taleialani,” answered Xavier. Stasis able to keep someone alive, in suspended animation, and healthy, for more than two million years, was a mind-warping discovery to be certain. All four of the scientists understood that anyone coming out of stasis needed answers, urgently, as a means to build trust with anyone responsible for waking them, but especially people from an unfamiliar galactic state of unfamiliar species.  
“Have you heard of the serafaeans?”  
“No, we're unfamiliar with them, either,” answered Aaron.  
“... small mercies, then. How many years have passed?”  
“According to this facility's computer system, it has been 2,611,332.6 solar revolutions since the activation point of the stasis modules,” replied Vai. Minsara looked at them as she pulled herself out of the stasis module to let her legs hang over the side, then allowed her eyes to pan across the massive chamber. They didn't need to tell her – she could see the dim, lightless modules stretching off beyond her range of vision, and their body language said enough to verify the conclusion.  
“I am all that remains. It becomes mine to restore the mirleiani to existence,” she said, at least partially to herself in thought, soliciting blinking reactions of some mystification.  
“Wait, how would you be able to do that if you are the only survivor?” asked Aaron, somewhat bewildered.  
“My species is able to reproduce across species; we've found no species of sapient that we are unable to mate with to produce mirleian young – the enzymatic proteins in the embryonic cells of mirleian females and found in the sperm of the males and members of my gender, allow cross-species fertilization. In the case of males and members of my gender, we are able to induce this a mirleian pregnancy in a male or female of another species.”  
“Wait, you can impregnate males from other species, as well?” queried Xavier, even more bewildered than Aaron.  
“Only when they are receptive to the mating; the enzymatic proteins are vulnerable to psionic interference. Psionic interference from either involuntary partners, or from willing partners who are unwilling to carry children or uninterested in doing so at any given moment. In females of other species, the pregnancy mostly occurs as ordinary, save that the child will be a mirleian who inherits some features from the mother but remains genetically mirleian. In males of other species, it will require a bit of time, as the enzymatic proteins will cause the growth of an egg-sac within the male's interior.”  
“So by way of example, if you were to inseminate one of us, we would first have a transitional period in which we grew a new internal organ, and would then upon insemination eventually lay eggs from whence would hatch infants of your species?” asked Vai, definitively scientifically intrigued.  
“Correct. This organ would then naturally and harmlessly deteriorate inside of the male's body once the eggs were released and brought to a hatchery, unless the male in question were inseminated again within a few hundred hours of laying the first set of eggs. In the case of males who married a mirleian male or member of my gender, the sac becomes permanent after a certain number of sets of eggs. This is rare, though, because the eggs grow outside of the body more than inside, and while females carry to term one infant, a male partner will usually carry several eggs, which would be incubated in hatchery environments and would eventually hatch several children.”  
“... fascinating. Nothing like the tellurians, then. Our Commonwealth has a species that has females who look like you, and males that are essentially the inversion of your own anatomy, where males carry the young in a womb and females both impregnate and then subsequently breastfeed. We have no familiarity with any species that has the ability to inseminate males regardless of anatomy by adapting their anatomy to fit the role, though,” Vai Lu said in answer.  
“I need to collect my gear,” the said, rising to a standing position where she towered over them, being about fifteen inches and thirty-two pounds larger than even the faleen archaeologist. Her stature was impressive, and the muscle tone was clearly that of a young but seasoned warrior whose sheer combat prowess was of such merit as that she was selected for the stasis module on that foundation, alone. Moving to a wall, she placed her palm against an unassuming section of the wall. A pulse of light radiated out from her hand, and then a previously-unnoticed panel separated itself from the wall, extending out to reveal a containment area that had protected the contents within from the ravages of time.  
She pulled out sheer fabric lingerie and slipped into them, followed by what appeared to be a fur-lined doublet and breeches of cream-coloured leather. As she dressed, she made important conversation with her rescuers, regarding a meeting with a Commonwealth negotiator concerning her status and the status of this asteroid and indeed this star system and other star systems that were once mirleian. Her underclothing, in turn, was followed with a gleaming, flexible metallic armour of remarkably dark, ultramarine pigment with bright silver accentuation. Next, she withdrew items very clearly oriented to a combat function – a pistol, a battle rifle, and a strange, curved knife with a gleaming crystalline blade.  
“What is your knife made of?” queried Aaron Dilaive inquisitively, ever the anthropologist and profoundly curious.  
“It is called uaelim; it is a crystal invented and first engineered by a woman named Hulon Maera Luci Uael. This is roughly ten times harder than diamond, and electrically superconductive in nature; the knife can be electrified to charge the blade when desired,” she answered simply, as she holstered the rifle on her right shoulder and the pistol on her left shoulder. The knife, then, was sheathed against her left breast, before she turned back toward them.  
“This Commonwealth of yours; what can it do for me, with regard to … my people, and my world?”  
“We can call for assistance from the army to help transport your people home, and Commonwealth law asserts that a planet is the guaranteed possession of a surviving member of any native species, so … you have a planet of your own right now that you will need to assume full responsibility for, I suppose,” Vai answered.  
“There's a lot to do, but the first priority would obviously be getting you and your people back to --” started Aaron, before the sound of an explosion from the direction of the ship utterly disrupted the conversation.  
“It appears someone does not agree with you about the first priority,” Minsara replied, stretching her muscles for an instant, and then pulling her knife and pistol from their sheath and holster, “Remain here; I will handle this.” She moved to a portion of the console, touching a few keys and showing Aaron what she was doing so he could reverse it, then left the stasis hall and headed to intercept whoever or whatever was causing all the noise.  
Slipping through the corridors with stealth that was surprising considering her metallic armour against the metallic corridors, she came to a door from which she could hear words being spoken beyond. She pressed her back against the wall and looked over her shoulder and around the door, seeing two of what appeared to be humans in red jackets but otherwise in what appeared to be haphazard outfitting, both with their back toward her. Crystalline knife in-hand, she slid smoothly from her position and closed the distance between her and the intruders, she swiveled the curved blade around one man's neck, to slit it all the way around. A heartbeat later, the blade sliced through the front of the other's throat as he just started to turn, at the sound from his comrade, severing both major arteries in the neck with a claw-like slash.  
Quick movement brought her back out from the room and further down the hall until she reached another room that had intruders rifling through things that were not theirs to touch. This time, three, and she reached her hand out into the arch and snapped her fingers loudly.  
“Did you hear that?”  
“Go check it out, stupid,” another said, “not like there's anyone here but those weakling Commonwealth scientists. We're going to kill them anyway when we find them.” When the man neared, her hand snapped out and seized his throat, as she yanked him around and snapped his neck with one large and powerful hand. She tossed him physically down the hall, in the direction she'd come from, before slipping into the room and delivering a fatal knife-strike near the hips on the left side of the spine, on each of the two interlopers inside. Continuing her path, she cleared two more rooms and six more men, prior to switching to her pistol; as a matter of utter necessity, when a hostile found her standing over three dead bodies, she turned and fired immediately, putting him down.  
The loud sound drew the attention of more, however, and soon eight intruders lay dead on the floor of the corridor, as she emerged and aggressively fire on several more who were emerging into the hallway. Advancing forcefully down that hallway, she reached a corner and had to switch from her pistol to her rifle, and accelerate her rate of fire, and take cover, as she fired down the length of the corridor. Another dozen men down, then two, before she proceeded down the hallways, and then up a stairwell, fighting her way down another corridor. The shimmering blue of her weapons fire left behind incendiary blue rifle burns on the hostiles, as she fought her way down until she ran out of red-jacketed hostiles. When new individuals emerged from the very far end of the last corridor near the entry level of the facility, she squinted faintly down the hall while standing firmly in her position.  
“You must be the special forces squad that arrived to assist the science team,” she said as she approached, her gait a reasonable pace; she was surprised by how quickly they'd arrived, “Captain Minsara Lusu Neha Ramir of the Mirleiani, Marine Paragon of the Alani Special Forces Division. Your language is harsh on my tongue, but I am appreciative to your Commonwealth for my timely reanimation. This facility is in a slow but inexorable shutdown process; soon, there will be only void.” She examined the collected crew before her, a combination of humans, something vaguely similar to a faleen yet at the same time dramatic in their differences, and another long-eared leporivan.  
“Yes, we are,” said a male of the new catlike species, with impressive mane and a stature appearing to situate him a bit above the rest in size, “Pleased to meet you. We're Omega Team, CSOD, Commonwealth Special Operations Division.”  
“Hey, guys, let's not waste any time. We're supposed to extract them all, right?” asked one of the humans, before he looked at her strangely, as if searching his memory or seeming like he may have somehow recognised her despite that there was no way that could have possibly been the case.  
“You have a universal translator of some descriptor, I take it?” said what appeared to be their commanding officer, “I am Captain Solon Minas of the Special Operations Vehicle Elysium, which will be the mechanism of your extraction. I take it all hostiles have been dealt with?” It pleased her that her ability to identify a commanding officer had not waned over the millions of years in stasis.  
“That appears to be the case; no hostile survivors,” Minsara answered, “Archaeological recovery team is intact. Team Leader Vai Lu is approximately one kilometre down this corridor with specialists Kai Laren, Aaron Dilaive, and Xavier Kefala. Thank you for arriving when you did; it may have proven too exhausting for my efforts to reach the landing zone unaided.” There was no point being overconfident or shy about the fact she had just been awakened from stasis and, as such, was perhaps not prime combat material as she usually was.  
“I suppose introductions are in order. Second Lieutenant Magnús Skallagrímson at your service. I'm what you'd call the big guy with the big gun on the team,” self-introduced the catlike male, “Still, not as tall as you are, though.” He seemed lighthearted about the matter, at least, which was certainly advantageous under the circumstances, as she was leading the lot of them back to the stasis hall where the science team waited.  
“Commander Gerhardt Lacroix. I'm the anti-vehicle specialist and starmech operator,” the one introduced who had looked at her strangely, as if attempting to work something out about her that perhaps bore no mentioning, “Also the XO of the ship.”  
“Second Lieutenant Skeggöld Skallagrímsdóttir,” self-introduced a human woman with a name strikingly similar to the feline male's identified name, “I'm the team psionic specialist. Anything that's psionic, I do it all. I'm also the combat helmsperson.”  
“Psionic abilities are a feature of your species? Fascinating; we knew many species that possessed psionic aptitude, though our species was not known to be predisposed to such abilities, ourselves,” Minsara replied. When the science team at midway met up with them, she nodded, and the entire group reversed course to head toward the landing zone where awaited a vessel to take them away.  
“Once all mirleiani have been recovered from the facility and laid rest, I have made a cursory arrangement to meet with a Commonwealth negotiator to discuss the terms by whence access and salvage efforts can be made on the facility as a whole,” she continued, “Much has changed while I slept. The galaxy I knew is less than dust, and I must learn the galaxy that is.”  
“You are welcome with us, certainly. How long were you in stasis, if you do not mind me asking?”  
“Your scientists tell me I was in stasis for slightly in excess of two million three hundred thousand of the standard year of your Commonwealth,” Minsara answered, which solicited bewildered silence from some of them, “I am the last of my species. Fortunately, my species evolved with a safeguard to combat such potential eventualities; as long as I breathe, my people can be returned to our former place, and can contribute to the Commonwealth accordingly.”  
“Well, before all that, we'll need to get you off of this rock. Standing orders are to bring you to safety and I don't think this place is that safe. The pirates would probably have sent a signal out for reinforcements during the fighting and if they've got a bunch of ships bigger than ours in their inventory, we'd be in trouble,” said Skeggöld in turn. She observed that the woman was holstering her weapon, which had a very distinctive shape Minsara would later hear described with the word tomahawk, as the one who called himself Gerhardt appeared to … spontaneously lose consciousness.  
“Wait, did you say … two million years?” asked Magnús, his irises demonstrably widening in what seemed clearly to be shock, to her, “You're … joking, right? Was it some kind of instrument error – never mind, we can talk about this later, we need to board the ship now.”  
“Yeah we definitely need to leave now. Gonna plant a beacon and then haul ass out of here. We're down two men as it is,” Skeggöld added, planting what appeared to be the mentioned Commonwealth locator beacon.  
“First thing's first, as Psyche pointed out,” said a female of the same species as Magnús as she picked up Gerhardt, physically, over a shoulder. Unceremonious, but in a way that suggested some sort of intimate relationship between the two.  
“I hope you do not intend to abandon this facility. There are four million mirleiani, minus one, a few levels below us, in need of funereal rites. I cannot abandon my kinfolk.” The matter was quite serious for Minsara, and in her estimation, this would be the proving-ground moment for the Commonwealth's commitment to upholding the nobility that it professed. It would be imperfect and far from ideal, but if she needed to stay behind by herself to defend the facility for some length of time, she was absolutely willing to do that as need demanded.  
“We must wait for Vigilance Fleet, then. Given the significance of this, they will send Vigilance Fleet and at haste; we wait, and we hope that the pirates did not have reinforcements. Three ships was a small pirate fleet, as it is; I doubt it possible that they have allies they could summon to attempt to rescue or avenge them, but if they do, we kill them in the corridors. If they want what's in this asteroid, they'll have to land for that.”  
“No problem but would you mind if we waited on the ship itself? Seems like a better place to be than just hanging around the facility,” Skeggöld said, gesturing for the catlike male to take the lead and for her and the scientists to follow him accordingly, “We've got more amenities available onboard... not to mention we need to get our guy in the medical bay... so I hope you understand our need to relocate you ma'am.”  
“Follow me ma'am,” continued the one who had introduced himself as Magnús, “We'll get you something to drink. Like water. You can drink water, right? If not... at least we'll get you somewhere more comfortable.” She found it somewhat of an amusement to consider lifeforms that could survive without water, hydration was a vital part of all sapient lifeforms of any origin that she had ever encountered. Still, perhaps it was not an unfair question, and at bare minimum, a way to break the ice, certainly.  
“Our biological needs do include water, most ideally from certain springs which our people used as the core sources of our personal hydration for thousands of generations,” she replied, “Of course, understandably, that is not the sort of water readily available; I hope to locate mineral springs of the like to my familiarity when I return, but my world will have changed dramatically in the intervening nearly quarter-aeon since I was placed into stasis. I think that relocation is wise, but I should travel to the hangar. There are ships, there, whose power cores could power some of the station's active and passive defense protocols and safely deactivate the damaged core.”  
“That sounds like an excellent plan,” the female feline answered, “I will carry Helios back to our ship; Captain?”  
“I should accompany our survivor to the hangar to ensure continued security; Psyche, Ares, it is up to you whether you want to accompany me or accompany Nemesis.” Minsara knew she was by some definition perhaps being difficult, and she'd rescued her fair share of difficult survivors herself, but she felt that she was being difficult, if at all, for a reason which was tactically sound.  
“Understood; this way, Captain. The hangar is some distance below us, from the perspective of where we're currently standing; it has three large vessels in it, however, whose power cores should be able to direct enough power to completely reactivate the facility and activate the defensive automata in the armoury.”  
“I assume these defensive automata recognise IFF codes?”  
“Correct; they also have hardwired tactical analysis protocols which ensure that they can assess and engage any hostile presence which is striking or firing on them or which is striking or firing on a mirleian.”  
“Sounds like these automata would prove an excellent defensive wall if further pirates arrive before the Vigilance Fleet,” Solon answered.  
“We'll go with you Captain, Nemesis could handle getting Helios back on her own or with Artemis,” Skeggöld said in reply, “VIP needs more security just in case, right? Standard protocol and all that.” Minsara nodded; she recognised their posture and their movement patterns entirely well: not only was she new, but it was logical tactical protocol to be ready just in case Minsara had missed hostiles in her initial sweep. She had not, but they had no way to know how intensely thorough her movements had been on the way toward the landing zone.  
“It is this way,” Minsara replied, leading them deep into the facility until they reached the hangar, another hundred metres down and another kilometre of corridors. The three ships in question were monumental, indeed, being more than one kilometre long and appearing to be at least two hundred metres from the dorsal plating to the ventral plating.  
“That is an extraordinary large vessel,” Solon put in.  
“A great transport, intended for ferry four million mirleiani home to recolonise our native world,” Minsara replied, “It still retains power. Hold, here, while I activate the vessels from the command console and direct their power to the facility to reactivate what the station core has been too damaged to power. We should be thankful that the power core and stasis hall absorbed most of a supernova's electromagnetic shockwave; the communications in this room are still intact, and in the armoury nearby.”  
“You know, I'm just hoping that those ships could still work... or at least be restored to working order somehow,” added Skeggöld, “Would be a shame if they couldn't.” One of them was clearly a transport, the other two being clearly ships of freight transit designed to assist the enormous passenger transport.  
“The ships have been in a chamber that might as well have been mechanical stasis for two million years, preserved against anything and everything which might have produced erosive forces on them. They were powered down on their arrival; it would be very unexpected if they did not work exactly as intended and precisely as they were working when we initially arrived at the facility,” Minsara replied, seconds before all three vessels started lighting up as they powered towards full power.  
“Rerouting power,” Minsara added, continuing to pay equal attention to the ships and the hangar and the console in front of her, until vivid blue hangar lights turned on, “Power rerouted. Station defenses coming online; passive defenses online. Given the incoming reinforcements and assistance, active defenses are being kept offline to enhance the performance of passive defenses. Ship diagnostics indicate all ships are in prime functional condition; the transport can become a museum of sorts, once my brethren have been returned home. Freighters should be put into use for the reconstruction, from what your scientists have told me of Commonwealth priorities.”  
“Is there anything we can do to help you?” asked Solon.  
“You've done so. I will return the gesture, now and shortly,” she said in answer. Her eyes moved over towards him, when she heard the garbled sound of a voice coming to him from whatever it was they used for communicators.  
“Given that it is not urgent, it will need to wait until she returns to the ship with us; we are going to be her escort home. You should have abundant time once we're aboard,” the Commonwealth captain said in reply to whoever was talking, then brought his attention back to her, “These ships are quite lovely; I think I would like to see their interior sometime, under better circumstances, of course. I must admit, I look forward to the sight of your home planet. Do you mind telling me anything about it?”  
“Evolution on our planet moved at a pace faster than we had ever documented on any other planet; the terrain was diverse. I believe your scientist called it a terran planet, or an earthlike planet, when I described it to him, aside from it having a strongly accelerated evolutionary rate,” Minsara replied, “We spent four thousand years attempting to isolate a reason that our planet's evolutionary cycle was so accelerated before accepting that some questions just simply don't have an answer that we can yet comprehend. We don't know why it is, but I know when I reach my home planet for the first time in this new age, it will be almost as alien to me as it shall be to you.”  
“The big one will be needed to transport the lost home,” Minsara added with a nod, “I am ready to go to your ship. We may leave as soon as we have confirmation that your Commonwealth has arrived and that they will begin the process of moving the fallen to the transport to be brought home.”


End file.
